Freystorm Keep - The Tidal Keep of Southshire

Garrick stood on the sand, his hand raised to block the afternoon sun as it beat down hard on the damp, brown sand. The screech of the dragon in the distance broke through the crashing of the waves, the rising steam of water boiling at its breath painted the horizon with a misty whitewash. The castle stood ahead of them, the low tide gently lapping at stone pathway that cut across the strand as if all the chaos of the siege was irrelevant to it. He supposed it was, to nature - tides rose and fell regardless of what banner flew where, perhaps there was something in that these nobles could learn?

Freystorm Keep is by far the grandest castle in Cornay, with the exception of the capital city's keep of The Skyhold, of course. The tidal island off the easternmost point of The Steps has long been the ancestral seat of House Asterland, amongst the richest houses in Cornay due to their access to gold and diamonds beneath their keep. Once the royal seat of the kingdom that grew to become Southshire after the Cornays landed, Freystorm Bay is one of the grandest and most defensible fortifications in the nation. During the conquest, Romidor the Great had wanted Freystorm Keep to be the seat of his new empire, but peace deals between the Asterlands and the Cornays resulted in the keep remaining in the hands of House Asterland and funds being redirected in compensation to develop the small keep and walled market town at Skyhold around the Bay of Stars. This left Freystorm in the hands of House Asterland for generations to come, a near-impenetrable fortress designed to be accessible only at low tide and to harness the very elements of Freystorm Bay against those who would challenge the great Swan House.

There are only two means to approach Freystorm Keep: either by the long stone road that runs from the beach to the keep along the seastrand or by boat approaching from the east. The city is walled facing inland, but makes use of the natural mound's jagged rock cliff edge as its primary defence when facing the sea - no greater defence than that which nature provides. The primary gatehouse accessed by the sea strand road is known as the Swan Gate, a colossal gatehouse featuring six sets of portcullis with murderholes, crenellations and a siege defence device known as "The Flusher". The Flusher is a well of entrapped seawater within one of the inland-facing walls which can be deployed at any moment to sweep attackers off their feet and into jagged rocks with all the force of a crashing tidal wave. Swan Gate is decorated with carved and painted heraldic shields, luxurious banners of gold and purple and a well-dressed patrol of crossbowmen in Asterland colours.

The keep and walls are made largely of a grey and pink granite, with decorative Oakenstone features and hard-wearing slate roof tiles. The material was largely abundant near the tidal island that Freystorm rests on, allowing the workers to remove the costs of transporting their materials and instead spend more on the import of Oakenshire's softer limestone for the creation of gargoyles and statuary. During the rule of King Gregor III, Lord Harinor Asterland had a series of Agaarian tile walls imported and installed throughout the keep in an attempt to keep up with the rising trend of exoticisation after peace was brokered between Agaar and Cornay. These tiles remain to this day, making Freystorm Bay one of the most opulent ancestral seats in the nation.

From the Swan Gate, the town of Freystorm is accessed - a town snaking its way up the mound through rising streets and steep stairways. The market town is largely occupied by fishermen, innkeepers and traders traversing the Coasts of Sand and Stone - a bustling place of seashell stalls, silk sellers, and the rich, salty smell of seafood served fresh on street corners. Freystorm Bay is famous for its clams and oysters, served as a delicacy in the street with servings of imported Agaarian lemons or diced shallots mixed with red wine and pepper. The market streets are named for their purpose, with Salt Lane hosting the buying and selling of fish and Silk Lane for the selling of luxury goods and experiences. Most streets are carved with central drainage gutters that flow down into the sea nearby, allowing for the waste of a market day or of the local population to be cleaned quickly with the use of gravity and water. Eventually, the town winds its way to its central ward, climbing high to the near climax of the mount. High stone walls separate the central keep from the wider settlement, with another large gatehouse and crenellated walkways to further defend the heart of Freystorm. The gatehouse here features two portcullises, arrow slits and murder holes to prevent further assault, paired with decorations of ornate banners and carvings. Along this wall and gate, a barracks and armoury is positioned for Asterland men-at-arms to access easily in the case of siege or attack, as well as connecting to a spiral staircase that takes defenders directly to the range of ballistae positioned along the seaward-facing wall that gives way directly to the cliff-face. From here, defenders can attack approaching ships and defend the cave port located directly below them.

Inside the central ward, the keep is grand and opulent - approached from a paved garden playing host to exotic flowers of varied colours and styles and a seating area with pavilions made of ornate, whitewashed wood. The keep's main door is colossal and painted with golden details, giving way to an abbey-style great entrance with winding staircases up and down. The great hall from here is large, with painted vaulted ceilings adorned with golden patterns, swans and flowers. At the very end of the great hall rests a high table, with a trio of large stained glass windows behind it depicting the Lord in Purple, the Friar in Yellow and in the centre of the two, a stained glass depiction of Freystorm Keep at sunset. The high table is set with chairs facing out towards the hall; a central golden throne carved with the wings of a colossal swan and inlaid with amethyst sits amidst high-backed wooden chairs with ornate gold and purple detailing. At strategic points throughout the Great Hall, podiums are placed to display illuminated texts or historical artefacts - including the late Ser Thomelin Asterland's starstone sword and a solid gold crown set with amethyst and diamond that belonged to the last Asterland Queen.

Up the stairs from the entryway leads to the towers of the central keep, filled to the bursting with luxurious parlours, guest apartments, libraries and personal solars for the various Asterland inhabitants. One such notable room includes the tiled Agaarian baths installed by Lord Harinor Asterland, which featured heated water through the use of an Agaarian hypocaust system that relied on a neighbouring room's fire being used to generate hot air under the raised floor of the baths - resulting in pleasantly warm water that was often accompanied by milk and petals. In recent years, the Black Swan Amira Asterland had the baths converted to host salt water, favouring an accompaniment of Agaarian desert flowers and honey. Atop the towers are the bedrooms, accompanied by closet towers and balconies overlooking the bay outside. Heavy tapestries and silk curtains decorate the purple-adorned rooms, each with their own private closet turrets and solar areas. All but one of the bedrooms are well maintained, with the exception being a small children's room in the highest tower - once the place the Asterland Twins were imprisoned in the wake of the Sunjoy line coming to power and removing the Asterland royal family. The Twins' tower room, known informally as Tobias' Folly, is now left bare except for a bed and chamberpot and is used for keeping hostages who do not deserve the dungeons. Down from the entryway leads to kitchens, cellars, pantries, butteries, salt stores, ice stores, servant quarters and a long stairway down to the cave docks that lie under the keep within the mound. From the cave docks, a dungeon is formed on the left-hand side, with tidal dungeons half-submerging prisoners who are chained to the walls at high tide. Additionally, in the cave docks is located a small private chapel - dedicated to the Lord in Purple and carved into a smaller cave that connects to the larger chamber. The roof of the Chapel Cave is painted with religious iconography and lit entirely with prayer candles; a natural pool from the sea outside forms a basin for the ritualistic washing of hands and face, and vaulted shrines are formed of reused parts of old boats. The chapel also has a small hidden stairway connecting the Lord of Freystorm's bedroom to the Cave Docks - one that Lady Amira made use of in her escape from the siege of Freystorm Bay. This is the chapel where Ser Thomelin and Lady Amira, like many other Asterlands before them, were married, so it is only fitting that it is the place that secured her safety when the Blade of the Tides laid down his life so that his wife and child could live.

Out from the Cave Docks, the rocky shore of Freystorm Bay gives way to The Steps and their turbulent waters. Dragons nest here, great lizard beasts the size of horses, with wings that stretch from the place their forelegs should be and horned tails that glide and whip through the air. The Steps are harsh, jagged rocks, the sea spray alone here is known to have blinded sailors at its worst and pays no favour to the ship's lookout searching for the flying beasts that breathe flames down on unsuspecting trading vessels. It's rumoured that the largest dragons along The Steps can reach wingspans of thirty feet, with their height from neck to tail tip being the same as that of Shehiri Giraffes - though such specimens are rarely spotted and often killed for their hide and skulls. One such skull can be found in the parlour of Freystorm Keep, once belonging to a dragon known as "The Terror" for its large size and ferocity, killed some 400 years ago. The water around the Cave Docks well is also dangerous, a curse is rumoured to rest on its waters since the supposed deaths of the Asterland Twins at the hands of their uncle and guardian, Lord Tobias Asterland. The water there, whether through magical curses or some leaking residue from the mine the Asterlands draw their wealth from, is known to drive people mad - resulting in fits of violence, hallucination and eventually death. As a result of this, drinking water is drawn from a well on the other side of Freystorm Keep rather than from the much easier-to-access drawing point beneath the castle.

Despite its dangerous surroundings, Freystorm Keep is still an opulent and impressive seat - a home to make even the richest and most powerful nobility jealous. Its grand purple tapestries and gold-inlaid decoration leave no doubt in the mind that this is a cathedral of wealth and luxury, a fortress in defiance of and in harmony with its hostile surroundings - it's hard not to see why the great marvel of a castle has commanded respect and power for centuries, and why the rebels of Freystorm Bay who had so little could look up and see it as a physical manifestation of all they stood against.